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Ham Radio Served as Main Link to Disaster Area
SonicSpike writes "A University of Central Florida ham radio operator K4VUD (and founder
of their film program) was caught in Port
Blair during the earthquake and following tsunami! He and a team of other ham radio operators arrived in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands to setup the region's
first ham station 2 weeks prior to the disaster. Once they realized what
happened they immediately began transmitting for 20 straight hours using car batteries as a power source. Most cellular and land-line communication was down. His team became the main link to the rest of the world from the region."
spHAM
Okay... ham radio... wow... we should all be impressed... how about using said car batteries and other forms of power to power the damned cell sites... much more useful... not everyone has a ham radio at their disposal... but I'm sure you'd find a cell phone, even in poverty stricken areas within a 5 kilometre radius...
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I hear they can't use ham.
How likely is it that Joe Ham in some suburbs is going to be capable of talking to India? Even with perfect weather and a great rig, very unlikely. Even with repeaters, rather unlikely.
In this case, it was used to communicate from the scene of the disaster to a more civilized area, where the messages and needs could be relayed. BPL would interfere with none of this.
Even if BPL become widespread and hams died out, sat phones are common enough. Hell, a local military could fly in comms within an hour or two if needed.
Ham radio was a great thing, but it is less relevant today, and hasn't advanced at all in the last 10 years.
Now, I've not done the calculations to see how much this would cost, but it seems to me that disasters occur quite often around the world. As such, actually setting up some kind of high-speed first-response system would seem to make a lot of sense. What you'd want is some kind of fleet of aircraft/helicopters located at strategic points around the globe, that can rapidly get to any crisis with first aid + basic medical supplies, food, ground penetrating radar + digging equiptment, and stuff along those lines.
In this case, such a fleet would have been more useful for evacuation purposes. Seismographs recorded the earthquakes long before the tsunami hit populated areas. No transport systems existed in those areas to get people out, but a first response system may have been able to get some out and deliver warnings to others. Enough that perhaps we'd be seeing death rates a tenth (or less) of those we actually have.
The world frequently suffers tragedies due to mudslides, earthquakes, floods, etc, but unlike Gerry Anderson's world, we don't have anything comparable to International Rescue. Personally, I think it's about time we did.
And, yes, Americans can think of this selfishly. If rescuers had been equipt with ground penetrating radar, working communications systems, etc, a good thousand or so more may have been saved from 9/11. The total lack of ability to handle disasters, by any country, is probably the cause of 30-50% of all deaths in disasters of this kind. Sure, a rescue system would cost money. But maybe it would cost less, in the long run, than allowing catastrophes to multiply, the way they do right now. Sigh. Until I've some evidence that the world actually does know what it's doing, I'll keep hoping that some Government will combine the real audacity & bravery of Red Adair with the fictional but inspiring guts & compassion of the Traceys & Brains.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
WATCH OUT!
COWBOY KNEEL LIKES TO EAT HAM!!
HE WILL EAT j00!!
FAGGOTS AND NIGGERS ALL OF YOU HAVE AIDS
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